With only two days to go for the fiscal year (FY2019-20) to end, the government has mopped up Rs 9.85 lakh crore in direct tax collections, data as of March 27 shows.

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This is well short of the Rs 11.70 lakh crore projected by the government in Budget 2020, and in comparison, 4.7 percent lower than the Rs 10.34 lakh crore the Centre had collected till the same day last fiscal.

Senior government officers said that the decline in collections is due to a combination of reasons; overall weak GDP growth, reduction in corporate tax rates announced on September 20 last year as well as the lockdown imposed by the government to tame the COVID-19 outbreak.

The weakness in direct tax collection is broad-based, sources quoted above said, adding that the Bombay and Delhi regions reported a fall of 5.1 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively. Collections from the Karnata and Goa region (considered together for tax jurisdiction purposes) fell by 5.6 percent.

The maximum decline was witnessed by the Kanpur region at 19.1 percent.

The Nagpur region, however, witnessed healthy growth, with a rise in tax collections of 34.7 percent.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which is the nodal department under the Finance Ministry that records direct tax collections and formulates tax policies, had "aimed to collect Rs 6.10 lakh crore from corporation tax; Rs 5.47 lakh crore from personal income tax (PIT) and Rs 12,000 crore from securities transactions tax (STT) to meet the budgeted revised estimates of Rs11.70 lakh crore," sources said.

Region-wise; CBDT had charged the Mumbai region to collect total tax of Rs 3.70 lakh crore, including Rs 2.22 lakh crore from corporation tax, Rs 1.35 lakh crore from personal income tax and Rs 12,000 crore from STT.

Delhi was to collect a total of Rs 1.65 lakh crore (Rs 1 lakh crore from corporation tax and Rs 65000 crore from personal income tax).

Similarly, the Karnataka and Goa region was charged to collect Rs 1.29 lakh crore, including Rs 60,000 crore from corporation tax and Rs 69000 crore from personal income tax, sources said.

However, all regional targets look difficult to be achieved, said a senior government official.

CNBCTV18 had on March 18 reported on the continuing weakness in the direct tax collection numbers despite the receipt of the last tranche of advance tax, which traditionally gives a leg up to the tax collections.

As of March 18, the tax receipts were down 5.3 percent, year-on-year.

Budget 2020 had revised the tax collections target downwards to Rs 11.70 lakh crore for the current fiscal from Rs 13.35 lakh crore laid in the year before.

The government had reduced its tax collections target after taking into account the revenue forgone of Rs 1.45 lakh crore on account of the reduced corporate tax rate.

With nearly Rs 2 lakh crore short, the revised targets look difficult even if the finance ministry includes the cushion of bulk tax receipts coming from the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has further extended the date of Vivad se Vishwas Scheme to June 30 from earlier March 31 because of the hardships being faced by taxpayers due to the lockdown announced to combat COVID 19 outbreak.

The Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme was announced by FM Sitharaman in the Budget, providing a way to taxpayers to end their legacy tax disputes and pay as per the scheme contours. The deadline has been extended twice now.

First Published:Mar 30, 2020 3:52 PM IST